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August
2005
Is Islam to blame for terrorism?
Terrorists are certainly capturing a great deal of
attention with their suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on innocent
people, not only in war torn
Terrorism is an ugly word. It’s easy to
oppose it, as it is easy to oppose any abstract idea that is repulsive. Acts of
violence, such as in
In order to truly fight terrorism,
however, one must put a face on it. We know how to fight people. As a result it
is easy to put the face of terrorists on many Middle Eastern people if one is a
Western Caucasian. Such is the case of
those who want to blame Islam for “letting” Muslims become terrorists. Kathleen
Parker is one of these thinkers.
Islam
In her column, Parker (MDN, July 17, 2005)
suggests that Islam is part of the problem. She says moderate Muslims need to
eradicate the element of their numbers that insist on terrorist activities for
the benefit of Islam. She says, with a couple caveats, that Islam must regulate
its members or be held responsible for the terrorist activities.
On July 18, 2005 Tom Tamcredo,
U.S. Representative from Colorado, suggested on a talk show in Florida that we
could take out Muslim holy sites if fundamentalist Muslim terrorists make a
nuclear attack on the United States. Later, when asked about this, he said he
was speaking hypothetically, but he held his view. Parker and Tancredo are two
of a kind apparently.
Suicide bombers are only one kind of
terrorist but perhaps their thinking sheds some light on terrorism. Robert A. Pape, University of Chicago political science scholar
studied 402 suicide bombers between 1980 and 2003 and came to a conclusion that
surprised him: the suicide bombers are a mix of religious and secular
individuals who fear the takeover of their country and culture by outside
forces (Detroit Free Press, 7/17/05). It’s not religious fanaticism that guides
them.
Christianity
Let’s put this same thinking to the test
in judging Christians. There are a lot of Christians acting in the name of
their belief in Christ that prompts them to act in ways that, in my opinion are
despicable.
Let’s start with the war in
When I wrote against the war before and
after President Bush ordered the invasion of
There is no one leader of Islam who
dictates what adherents can do, just as there is no one leader of Christianity
to dictate what Christians can do. The Catholic Church does have a universal leader
who is respected, not only by Catholics, but by many other Christians. Yet his
words are ignored by many adherents and others.
Parker expects Muslims to clean up their
ranks, yet the Pope and the leaders of most of the Christian denominations told
Bush not to go to war in
Are double standards at work here? Does
justice only exist on this side of the world? Does hatred exist only in the
hearts of Muslims? We all have work to do and it begins with you and me at
home, in the work place, and in public life.
Peace and understanding
The work we have to do is the same work of Rev. Reihnold Niehbuhr before and
during World War II, when he promoted peace and understanding during a period
of heavy anti-Semitism and other ethnic hatred, according to David Crumm of the Detroit Free Press.
Crumm
continued his column by saying that it was during this period of Niehbuhr’s life that he wrote the famous Serenity Prayer.
The original words go like this and are a fitting conclusion to this column:
“God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to
distinguish the one from the other.”